Omar al-Bayoumi
A Saudi national who arrived in the United States in 1993 or 1994 and lived on a stipend from Dallah/Avco, masquerading as a Business Studies student. Bayoumi was actually involved in establishing mosques in the San Diego area. The FBI opened an inquiry on Bayoumi in September 1998 when his apartment manager reported suspicious packages from the middle east and strange wires in his bathroom. Also frequent gatherings of young middle eastern males in Bayoumi's apartment on weekends. The inquiry was shut down June 1999. Bayoumi met Hazmi and Mihdhar in January or February 2000. Some time in late 1999 or early 2000, Omar al-Bayoumi began receiving another monthly payment, this one from Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the wife of Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador. Checks for between $2,000 and $3,000 were sent monthly from the princess, through two or three intermediaries, to al-Bayoumi. The payments continued for several years, totaling between $50,000 and $75,000. In July 2001, Omar al-Bayoumi moved to England to pursue a PhD at Aston University. Ten days after the September 11 attacks he was arrested by British authorities working with the FBI. After 9/11 the FBI heard evidence that Bayoumi was a "ghost employee" of AVCO Overseas and was therefore paid for doing nothing. One person Bayoumi may have been working for was Mohammed Ahmed al-Salmi of the Saudi Civil Aviation ministry. A man named Yazeed al-Salmi, apparently a nephew, moved in with Abussattar Shaikh after arriving in California, reportedly with the assistance of al-Bayoumi. He was apparently also a student at SDSU, a university that Shaikh claimed to be a retired professor at. ---------------- Omar al-Bayoumi was reported to have volunteered at Kurdish Islamic Community Centre in El Cajon. I found that at 1357 Broadway El Cajon, CA 92021, on Thursday June 26, 1997, a KURDISH COMMUNITY ISLAMIC CENTER OF GREATER SAN DIEGO, INC, was incorporated by a Khalid Abdulla Abdulkadir and Saeed Salih. At the same address, six months earlier, another company called Global United LLC was incorporated. On Friday, January 17, 1997, the founders were Michael Nalu, James M. Rockefeller and Munther Ghazal. Another business named Global United Ltd formed on Feb 19, 1997 by James M. Rockefeller,  Roy E. Hearrean and Munther Ghazal, used the addresses: 3020 Hoover Ave, National City, CA 91950;  2629 Manhattan Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254;  5461 E Centralia St, Long Beach, CA 90808. Roy E. Hearrean was named to the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners in July 1991, which manages the Port of Long Beach. An address Hearrean, 5000 E Spring St Long Beach, CA 90815 is next door to the FBI building in Long Beach. A woman named Najla Alhabeeb is listed as having lived at 1357 Broadway El Cajon, she may be related to a mysterious man from Saudi Arabia who bought a building for the mosque named Saad alHabeeb. One of the mosques buildings on Magnolia Avenue burned down in August 2006. A man named Shujaa Abdur-Rahim al-Kamal from Culver City appeared claiming to be a representative of Al-Habeeb. I found a guy called Shujaa Ken kamal with a post office box in Culver City and an addresses at 11460 Venice Blvd and 5446 Westhaven. According to media reports, Munther Ghazal is an Iraqi man who ran a 5 star hotel in Baghdad which was later taken over by the government of Iraq. James Rockefeller is apparently a member of the famous family, and goes by the identity Mel Rockefeller. Stories exist online about him visiting Iraq in 1997. I found this online: This is a recent letter Mel wrote to a Congressman: Congressman McCaul: There is zero doubt that the FBI had a role in ensuring that the recent bombing in Boston went forward. Let me explain from my personal experience. Two of the hijackers who flew planes into the WTC had their rent paid and checks cashed by San Diego Special Agent Stephen Butler. I know for a fact that he knowingly engaged in criminally obstructing information that could have stopped President Bush from ordering the invasion of Iraq post-911. See my attached letter to Senator Hagel pre-confirmation hearings. See also the attached letter to Senator Levin (from my home state of Michigan) and it will be clear why Senator Levin could not respond. Operatives within the FBI knew the 911 hijackers paying their rent and cashing their checks. Special Agent Butler went to the home of Iraqi-American Munther Ghazal on September 15, 2001 to ask if he was funding me. That's the same day that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the first pitch to President Bush and the principals at Camp David that the U.S. should invade Iraq in response to 911. Why did Agent Butler visit Munther Ghazal four days after 911? To date the FBI has refused to interview me on any record as that would implicate those within the Bureau loyal to Israel. Nor could the FBI respond functionally to a Freedom of Information/Privacy Act request as that would make their complicity transparent. The ongoing failure to engage me—and the facts that can be proven by my firsthand experience—is aiding and abetting ongoing treason in plain sight. ---------------- Saad al-habeeeb story: Mosque congregation finds itself enmeshed in inquiry By Susan Gembrowski and Hala Ali Aryan October 27, 2001 EL CAJON -- Imam Amir Bajelori was happy to find a benefactor three years ago who provided Kurdish Muslims with the money to buy a building for a mosque. But he and other board members of the Al-Madina Al-Munawara mosque didn't like one condition that came with the $545,000 gift: The benefactor installed Omar Al-Bayoumi as the building's maintenance manager with a private office at the mosque. "We wanted to be the boss for everyday things," Bajelori said. "This is the Kurdish community. It doesn't want anyone telling us what to do." Now the mosque members say they are disheartened to learn that Al-Bayoumi, 44, may have been an advance man who helped set up a terrorist cell in San Diego. The FBI is investigating Al-Bayoumi's possible involvement. Reached at his home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, the property owner, Saad A.S. Al-Habeeb, said he did not know Al-Bayoumi was under investigation, only that he had moved to England to go to school. Al-Habeeb said he made Al-Bayoumi the manager of the mosque because Al-Bayoumi lived in the area. Al-Habeeb didn't say during a brief interview how he knew Al-Bayoumi. "As far as I know, he is a good man," Al-Habeeb said. "He lived in America a long time. He has children." At the brick and wood mosque on Magnolia Avenue, the imam, or religious leader, explained how Muslims living in El Cajon got the more than half-million dollars to buy the building. Al-Bayoumi's association with the mosque has its beginnings in late 1997 during Ramadan, the holy month of Islam. The Kurdish Muslims, most of whom are immigrants from northern Iraq, were renting space then on Lexington Avenue for their prayer services. But many of the Kurds are poor people, and they were having trouble paying the bills, the imam said. A Saudi man, who came to prayer services during Ramadan, said he could help them. Mosque members knew him as "Mohamed Barak," although they weren't sure of the spelling. He connected them with Al-Habeeb, who bought the Magnolia Avenue building for them in 1998. They did not see Barak again after he told them he was going back to Saudi Arabia to set up the deal. The building was donated to the Kurdish community, several people said, but Al-Habeeb's name remains on the property title. Bajelori said he saw Al-Habeeb only once, when the man came to the United States from Saudi Arabia to sign papers to buy the building on Magnolia. Al-Habeeb acknowledged that he had come to San Diego to buy the property, but would not say any more, apparently apprehensive about being linked to terrorists. "Please call back in a few weeks," Al-Habeeb said. "We are very afraid." The Kurds did not see anything suspicious in a Saudi helping them buy a mosque. It's common for wealthy Saudis to financially help other Muslims, said Halim Mostafa, a security company owner who worships at the mosque. Charity is one of the five pillars of Islam. After the property was purchased, Al-Bayoumi handled the repairs and paid the nominal $12 tax bill. The mosque's board paid the electricity and water, said Sabah Dizaye, director of the executive board of the mosque. But Al-Bayoumi hasn't been to his office at the mosque in nearly a year, the imam said. The property tax bill was faxed to him in England this year, Dizaye said. News reports in England indicate that Al-Bayoumi moved to Birmingham, lived in student housing for six months while he attended graduate school and then rented a home when his family joined him. Also known as Abu Imard, he was arrested Sept. 22 under Britain's Terrorism Act of 2000, according to the Sunday Mercury, a Birmingham newspaper. He was later released. FBI sources said he remains under investigation. Al-Bayoumi has strongly denied any connection to the hijackers and the al-Qaeda terrorist network, according to British media reports. But law enforcement and community sources in San Diego said money was funneled here to Al-Bayoumi from Saudi Arabian sources and used to finance the hijackers. "Al-Bayoumi came here, set everything up financially, set up the San Diego cell and set up the mosque," said a federal investigator who asked to remain anonymous to protect his job. Anyone handling business for a mosque or a church could set it up as a tax-exempt charitable organization, said Charles P. LeBeau, an international tax attorney in San Diego. "They have this veil of legitimacy and it can easily be used for money laundering," LeBeau said. About a month ago, the FBI searched Al-Bayoumi's office at the mosque, an unusual move in a house of worship. The imam declined to talk about the search, but said Al-Bayoumi didn't have much in the office except a table and two or three chairs. A mosque member said the FBI left with a stack of papers, wrote down the office's telephone number and took a picture of the phone. During his tenure at the mosque, Al-Bayoumi's office schedule had been erratic. Once he came daily for a week, at other times once a week, and sometimes the imam wouldn't see Al-Bayoumi for a month. He would sometimes bring a laptop or a personal computer with him. Al-Bayoumi's relationship with the Kurds was uneasy. Before he left for England, the Kurdish Muslims had tried to oust him and take over the mosque repairs themselves. Al-Bayoumi wanted his business cards to read "general supervisor," but the Kurdish Muslims disagreed with it. They said he was there only to handle building maintenance. "The Kurdish people don't like this situation," the imam said. They even threatened to move out of the building at one point, but then Al-Bayoumi left. Al-Bayoumi told the imam at the El Cajon mosque that he was a student. " 'What you are doing?' I would ask him," Bajelori said. "He studies. He's a student. He never told us what he is studying. One time I asked him when he graduates." Bajelori shrugged to indicate he never got an answer. Salih Saeed, a former board member at the mosque who quit out of fear after the Sept. 11 attacks, said he saw Al-Bayoumi but never talked to him. "We don't know what he did," Saeed said. "We just want a place to pray." Al-Bayoumi would come to the mosque alone, but did bring his family for holiday services, the imam said. Because Al-Bayoumi lived in Clairemont, he usually worshipped at the Islamic Center of San Diego near his apartment, the imam added. The director of the Clairemont mosque said he was surprised by reports linking Al-Bayoumi to the terrorists. "If you saw him yourself, you'd never think he was a person who would ever think of that," said Abdeljalil Mezgouri of the Islamic Center, the largest mosque in the county. Al-Bayoumi had lived in various Clairemont apartments with his wife and four children, including in the same complex as hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid al-Midhar. Al-Habeeb also is listed as living at one of the apartments, according to a records search, but different tenants now live there. Property records show that Al-Habeeb bought the mosque building for $545,000 in cash in June 1998 from Ro-Liff Inc., a real estate business. The imam said no one at the El Cajon mosque has had any contact with Al-Habeeb since the purchase. Neighbors who live near the mosque said they didn't know much about the people who prayed there. But residents did note that they have seen fewer people going in and out of the mosque since the terror attacks. "It ain't like it used to be," said Joseph Hinnang, who lives across the street. "There used to be a bunch of cars and services on Fridays. It's not opened up as much now." Mostafa, the security company owner, was guarding the mosque during services yesterday because its members are afraid. ---------------- Shujaa Kamal story: Payout on '06 mosque fire on hold Unlicensed lawyer at center of dispute February 9, 2008 EL CAJON – A dispute over who is entitled to a $1.1 million insurance settlement has delayed the rebuilding of an El Cajon mosque and Kurdish cultural center that burned down in August 2006. A Los Angeles-area man who says he represents the Saudi Arabian owner of the property doesn't want to split the proceeds with a company that helped arrange the settlement. A lawyer for the insurers says the representative shouldn't receive the settlement money – let alone decide where it goes – because he isn't a licensed attorney. “It's just a mess,” said Derrick Sturm, attorney for Amco Insurance, who filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court seeking to resolve the situation. The building on Magnolia Avenue housed a mosque – a house of prayer for East County Muslims – and the Kurdish Community Islamic Center before it was destroyed in an early morning fire Aug. 17, 2006. El Cajon fire officials never determined the cause of the fire, but said its origin was not suspicious. The FBI and other federal authorities were called in to investigate the fire because it occurred at a place of worship. The property where the mosque once stood is a barren patch of land. The people who used to convene there now say their prayers at other mosques around the county. The owner of the property is Saad A.S. Al-Habeeb Inc., a corporation owned by Saad al-Habeeb, who lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The mosque was in the news soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the FBI investigated Omar al-Bayoumi, whom al-Habeeb had hired as the building's maintenance manager. FBI agents wanted to know whether al-Bayoumi helped set up a terrorist cell in San Diego and aided two 9/11 hijackers when they lived here. Al-Bayoumi, who denied any connection to terrorism, had left San Diego County for England in 2000. He was arrested in England but released a week later without charges being filed. After the August 2006 fire, trustees of the mosque hired Pacific Public Adjusting to negotiate the claim with Amco, which insured the building. The contract called for Pacific to receive 3 percent of the insurance claim. Amco reached a settlement figure of about $1.1 million, $33,600 of which was due to the public adjusting company under the contract. Sturm said Amco ran into trouble when it tried to distribute the settlement. Shujaa Abdur-Rahim al-Kamal, a Culver City man calling himself a legal consultant, says he is representing al-Habeeb. Al-Kamal said al-Habeeb gave him power of attorney to represent the Saudi Arabian in the dispute. Al-Kamal said he is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh law school, but is not licensed to practice law in California. The school confirmed his graduation. “Anyone can represent someone as long as the contract itself is a valid contract,” al-Kamal said. Sturm and Jon Cooper, an attorney for Pacific Public Adjusting, disagree. Sturm, who said he hasn't been able to contact al-Habeeb, doesn't want to turn the insurance settlement over to al-Kamal because al-Kamal is not an attorney. Cooper said al-Habeeb can get his settlement if he hires a licensed attorney. “The money is sitting there waiting to go to al-Habeeb,” Cooper said. “The case was just about done until al-Kamal pops up.” Al-Kamal said he's never met al-Habeeb but was asked to represent him because they share a mutual friend. He said the mosque trustees told Pacific Public Adjusting they did not own the property and shouldn't have signed a contract hiring the company. Al-Habeeb later signed the contract himself but didn't realize what he was signing because he doesn't read English well, al-Kamal said. Sturm said he hopes Amco's part in the case will soon be done. He has put the $1.1 million in a trust with the San Diego Superior Court until a judge decides the dispute between al-Kamal and Pacific Public Adjusting. “Our involvement is trying to get the policy money into the right hands,” Sturm said. “We don't know who's entitled to what.” Al-Kamal said al-Habeeb cannot sell the land or rebuild the mosque until the insurance dispute is resolved. “The community has no place to go. There's a lot of people who have been affected and harmed by this,” al-Kamal said. “That's the sadness.” ----------------- Another person listed as resident in al-Bayoumis house in 6333 Mount Ada San Diego was "Solimon Elay" I believe this could be an alias of Sulaiman Al-Ali whose real name is Sulaiman Kabbara House testimony follows: A search of the Person Locator (P-SRCH) database on Lexis-Nexis indicates that Sulaiman A. Al-Ali’s former name is Sulaiman Kabbara. He has two brothers residing in the Northern Virginia area: Bachir and Amal Kabbara. On September 30, 1993, on behalf of himself, Amal, and Sulaiman, Bachir Kabbara incorporated “3 Brothers Of Virginia Paging Inc.” using the same business address as IIRO: 360 S. Washington St. in Falls Church, Virginia. On November 1, 1993, Bachir Kabbara also incorporated “NAMA, Inc.” using the 360 S. Washington St. address. Al-Ali’s brother Bachir Kabbara had formerly served as the Imam of the radical Islamic Center of Tucson, Arizona from 1990 to 1992. One of Bachir Kabbara’s predecessors as leader of the Tucson center was none other than MWL official and senior Bin Laden advisor Wael Jalaidan himself. Between 1985 and 1993 (including times at which Kabbara was in charge), the Islamic Center of Tucson served as the de-facto headquarters of Al-Qaida in the United States. The mosque was integral in disseminating Al-Jihad, the Arabic-language publication of the Peshawar, Pakistan-based “Mujahideen Services Office.” As a result, the Islamic Center spawned the Al-Kifah Refugee Center, the Arab-Afghan jihad fundraising outlet tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. While he lived in Arizona, Wadih el-Hage, Usama Bin Laden’s former personal secretary, was a regular attendee at the Tucson mosque at this time.70 Phoenix Memo author FBI Agent Kenneth Williams believes that “El-Hage established a Usama Bin Ladin support network in Arizona while he was living there and that this network is still in place.” ------ Another description online of Al-Ali: IIRO in the US had previously operated out of an office in Falls Church, Virginia by Dr. Sulaiman bin Ali Al-Ali, described by one media report as a “wealthy and influential figure in Saudi Arabia who, as a member of IIRO’s executive committee had solicited donations directly from the Saudi Royal family.” ---- According to the 28 pages, FBI agents involved in the case had received several reports that led them to believe al-Bayoumi was a Saudi intelligence officer, living and working secretly in the U.S. His cover story was that he worked for an aviation logistics company owned by the Saudi government, but investigators found he never did any work for the company. Even al-Hamzi suspected al-Bayoumi was a Saudi spy, according to the 9/11 Commission report. ------------- Trails Lead to Saudis by MATTHEW EPSTEIN May 21, 2003 In March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group of Saudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The government hauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the “SAAR Network,” a web of dozens of related companies with interlocking officers, directors, and corporate headquarters. The Treasury Department suspected the group was laundering money for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Now over a year after the raids, many are asking whether the Justice Department will hand down indictments or clear the targets’ names. While the government has revealed very little about the lengthy probe, documents recently made public in terrorism trials across the nation shed new light on the subjects of this ongoing terrorism investigation. At the center is SAAR Executive Yaqub Mirza. Mirza has been publicly linked to the alleged financing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad through his organizations International Institute of Islamic Thought and Safa Trust. He was also a director of Ptech, the Boston-based software company raided by a terrorism task force last year for its connections with designated al Qaeda financier Yasin Kadi. Mirza has denied wrongdoing. In light of the new documents, investigators are revisiting the financial activities of two SAAR affiliated Islamic charities, the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), and its sister organization Sana-Bell, Inc. IIRO, SANA-BELL & THE GOLDEN CHAIN Red flags have been raised by the fact that Sana-Bell’s Washington, D.C. branch was founded by two known al Qaeda financiers, Saleh Kamel and Ibrahim Afandi. Yaqub Mirza is also listed as a founding trustee. Kamel and Afandi are members of the Golden Chain, a group of wealthy Gulf patrons that donated millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden. Former al Qaeda operatives have explained how Golden Chain financiers would donate funds earmarked for bin Laden by way of the Saudi evangelical charity the Muslim World League. Both Sana-Bell and IIRO are operational arms of the Muslim World League. The Golden Chain was established at the time of al Qaeda’s formation in 1988; Sana-Bell’s DC branch was organized only months later. AL QAEDA IN BOSNIA In the 1990′s, IIRO and Sana-Bell spearheaded the relief effort for the Bosnian Muslims. On 1996 U.S. tax forms, IIRO listed $4.5 million in total grants and allocations; $3.9 million went to “Emergency relief supplies (medical supplies) to International Islamic Relief in Bosnia.” A newly released 1996 CIA report explains that “nearly one third of the Islamic NGOs in the Balkans have facilitated the activities of Islamic groups that engage in terrorism.” In fact, Osama bin Laden once explained that he felt it was important to assist the Bosnians in an effort to establish a base of operations in Europe, from which al Qaeda would have easy access to Western nations. Without surprise, IIRO relief worker identity cards were found on the bodies of dead mujahedeen fighters in Bosnia. SULAIMAN AL-ALI: CORRUPT LEADER OR TERROR FINANCIER? The U.S. based activities of Sana-Bell and IIRO first caught the attention of terrorism investigators in 1997 when FBI agents raided the offices of their operational leader, Sulaiman al-Ali. In a 33-page affidavit alleging money laundering and fraud, FBI Special Agent Valerie Donohue concluded that, “IIRO holds itself out to the public as a charitable organization, but has disbursed significant sums of money in ways that do not appear consistent with a charitable mission.” Federal agents alleged that al-Ali laundered over $1 million dollars through Global Chemical Corporation, a Chicago-based chemical manufacturer. The president of Global Chemical is currently serving a 51-month sentence for fraud. According to his former business partners, al-Ali was a wealthy and influential figure in Saudi Arabia. As a member of IIRO’s executive committee, he solicited donations directly from the Saudi Royal family. Tax filings reveal that from 1992 to 1998 al-Ali invested millions of dollars in shadowy real estate deals operated by the private Islamic investment bank BMI, Inc. BMI’s backers include two Specially Designated Terrorists (Musa Marzouk and Yasin Kadi) and two bin Laden brothers. Sana-Bell later filed a lawsuit against al-Ali and BMI for $3.7 million that disappeared. Despite years of running Sana-Bell’s finances, Yaqub Mirza and Sana-Bell argued that al-Ali lacked authority to transact on Sana-Bell’s behalf. To terrorism investigators following the money trial, Sana-Bell’s sudden break with al-Ali and BMI is troubling. Sana-Bell executives first questioned al-Ali’s financial activities on August 18, 1998, only eleven days after the East African embassy bombings. Court filings explain that BMI was contacted by a top Muslim World League official from Saudi Arabia, described as “the Pope of the Muslims,” and instructed to “cancel the validity of al-Ali's signature in regard to all of our accounts with your firm.” According to a sworn statement filed by FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, a BMI accountant confessed that he feared money he transferred overseas might have helped finance the attack. OTHER AL QAEDA LINKS Investigators are probing other connections between Sana-Bell head Sulaiman Al-Ali and al Qaeda. In a 1991 tax filing, al-Ali disclosed that he had a “strong relationship” with Lajnat al-Dawa, Kuwait, an agency involved in “assisting the Afghan Refugees in Pakistan.” Lajnat al-Dawa has since been listed by the Treasury Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) as a result of their financial and operational support of al Qaeda. September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his older brother Zahed headed the Lajnat al-Dawa operations in Peshawar, Pakistan. Lajnat al-Dawa’s sister organization, Lajnat al-Alam, was identified in the 1996 CIA report as a supporter of Arab mujahedeen training camps in Bosnia. Saudi officials have told reporters that Sulaiman al-Ali was arrested by authorities upon his return to Saudi Arabia in October 2000. Shortly after, he was released on bail. Saudi officials could not confirm if any legal action followed. As the Saudis are unlikely to make al-Ali available to U.S. investigators, perhaps Yaqub Mirza or his personal files can help fill in some of the missing links. Matthew Epstein is an attorney and senior terrorism analyst at the Investigative Project, a Washington, D.C.-based counterterrorism think tank established in 1995. ----------------------- Amal Kabbara appears to work for an Islamic school in Washington tied to the Saudi Embassy and Dar al Hijrah Mosque Category:Characters Category:All